Electronic Arts' Mythic Entertainment studio on Tuesday announced that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (also known as WAR) will be released for the Mac on Oct. 28. Gamers will be able to download it from GameTreeOnline.com for US$19.95, which includes 30 days of game time. Players who currently have accounts on the Windows side will be able to download the Mac client for free.
Based on Games Workshop's popular Warhammer tabletop war and role-playing games, Warhammer Online features Realm vs. Realm conflict in which characters take the side of Destruction, with its followers of Chaos, Greenskins, and Dark Elves, or of Order, with its human Empire, High Elves, and Dwarves. Players' accomplishments in completing quests, winning player-versus-player skirmishes, and other activities earn their side points that shift the momentum in the larger war. The goal is for one side to earn enough points to assault, and possibly destroy, their enemies' capital city.
WAR's Living Cities change in connection with each side's success in the overall war, looking more or less prosperous over time. As players progress through the game, they also fill their Tome of Knowledge, unlocking new information about a Warhammer storyline that is distinct from Games Workshop's other iterations of the game.
The 10-day Beta trial of the game is still available for the Mac, giving players a chance to check it out for free before the final version launches. WAR costs US$14.99 per month, with cheaper per-month fees for purchasing game time in three- or six-month blocks.
System requirements:
- Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher
- Intel Core Duo Processor
- 2 Gigabyte RAM
- ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM
- At least 15 GB of hard drive space for installation
- This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac)
- Supported Video Cards:
- ATI Radeon(TM) series
- X1600, X1900, HD 2400, HD 2600, 3870
- ATI/AMD: HD 4850, HD 4870
- NVIDIA GeForce series - 7300, 7600, 8600, 8800
- NVidia: 9400, 9600, GT120, GT130
- This game will not run on the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.